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Day 6: Saturday, June 12, 1999 -- Epcot and Cirque Du Soleil
We awoke early today and headed to Bonfamille's to eat at their wonderful breakfast buffet before taking Mary to the airport. Mary's flight departed on time, and we were sad to see her go. Round trip cab fare for the airport including a tip came to about $80. Since we would need transportation to Islands of Adventure tomorrow, we were all kicking ourselves at this point for not having rented a car. Oh well, hindsight is a wonderful thing.
We had the cab drop us at Port Orleans and then took a bus to Epcot where I was to meet last night's gang to send an electronic postcard to the DisneyDieters. I was the first of the group to show up, and we were getting awfully hot and thirsty waiting for everyone else to arrive. Spotting Ice Station Cool, I decided to quickly introduce Joe and Jimmie to "Beverly," just as my "dear" friends Don and Laurie had done for me this past December. For those of you who have never had the opportunity to indulge in this unique experience, "Beverly" is an awful Italian Coca-Cola product that tastes very much like medicine. Needless to say, Joe and Jimmie told me how cruel they thought I was, but I'm sure they are just waiting for their opportunity to offer someone "a taste of Beverly."
After sending the postcard, Joe, an ex-CM, offered to show Don, Laurie, Jimmie and I a short cut for bypassing the line at Test Track. Although I promised not to reveal his secret, I will tell you that this guy is "smoooooth." Jimmie followed Joe's lead and walked right onto Test Track, while Don, Laurie, hubby and I, not being rule breakers, promptly chickened out. I kept picturing sirens going off and a loud speaker bellowing "Hey you there." "Yeah you, the line jumper." So instead, we made our way to the exit to meet Joe and Jimmie who arrived there about 10 minutes later. Hubby and I thought about standing in the 75-minute line to ride Test Track, but realized that we would not make our 2:50 PM seating time at the Coral Reef Cafe and decided to do it after we ate. It was a little too soon to check in over at the Living Seas, so I suggested that we ride Universe of Energy and Spaceship Earth first. Unfortunately, right after boarding SSE the ride broke down for about 15 minutes, and we arrived late at Coral Reef Cafe anyway.
Since we had booked the last lunch seating at the seafood restaurant, arriving late became somewhat of a problem. We were informed that it was now too late to be seated since the restaurant had to set up for the dinner crowd. I begged them to take us anyway, recounting our sad tale of being trapped on Spaceship Earth. Finally they relented and we were seated in an empty dinning room with no one else around. Our waiter, an older gentleman with a Scottish accent, was very gracious as he ever so gently rushed us through our meal. He asked for our dessert selection with our meal order since the kitchen was closing. Our entrees and lobster bisque soup were just okay, but our dessert of pineapple upside down cake was a truly delicious work of art resembling a miniature coral reef. The bill for two lunches including soup, dessert and tip came to about $80. I thought that this restaurant was a bit over priced for the quality of the food. Of course eating in an empty restaurant with a bunch of people running around setting up tables may have detracted slightly from the experience.
Now it was finally time to ride Test Track. Joe said he would wait for Jimmie and me at the exit since he had no desire to stand in the 75-minute queue (yeah, it had nothing to do with the fact that he hates thrill rides). The line seemed to take forever to get through, but I thought it was worth the wait to ride it for the first time. I don't think I'd wait that long for future rides however. Maybe I can get cyber buddy Joe to give me a few lessons on that timesaving technique of his. Jimmie made the interesting comment that it felt like he was actually travelling faster on Test Track than he had earlier in the week driving a stock car at 120-mph.
We returned to the resort to relax a little before Cirque Du Soleil and still managed to arrive at Disney's West Side about an hour before show time. Since Jimmie dabbles in guitar playing, I wanted to take him for a peek at the Guitar Gallery and maneuver myself within strategic position of the Candy Cauldron in the process. I couldn't resist buying yet another piece of fudge.
We discovered that we had very good seats for Cirque in section 203, row DD. How do you describe this show? Jimmie said that he would tell people to "imagine their worse nightmare, and then imagine that they enjoyed it." Joe said, "it was like being on drugs, without the drugs." And I'm still trying to figure out what that woman was doing hanging out her laundry during the performance. At any rate, all three of us joined the rest of the audience when the show was over in a 5-minute standing ovation, thundering round of applause. I'd recommend this show to anyone. I've gotten far less entertainment for my $54 at other shows, and knowing what I know about this one, I'd probably pay more to see it if required (sure hope no one from Cirque is reading this). Don and Laurie who also attended this evening's performance of Cirque would agree, I'm sure.
Joe, Jimmie, Don, Laurie, and I decided to get a drink at House of Blues after the show, but the waiting list to be seated was huge. Oh well, it was getting late, and we had to be up early tomorrow for Islands of Adventure.
Day 7: Sunday, June 13, 1999 -- Islands of Adventure
Because of all the great reviews I had read about this park, I was anxious to visit it long before my trip ever began. If it were anything like USF though, one visit would probably be enough for me. While I do enjoy thrill rides, WDW holds much more attraction for me because I'm such a sucker for theming, special effects and showmanship. I have definitely ridden more thrilling "drop you" rides than TOT, but in my humble opinion, it is "The Best" because from the moment I step foot into that horrific old hotel, I am transported into........... "The Twilight Zone."
This morning Joe, Jimmie and I would be sharing a cab over to IOA with my Internet friend Joe and two of his buddies. They arrived at Port Orleans in the van-cab promptly on schedule at 8:15 AM. The cab ride cost $30, and we split it 6 ways.
After paying our $46 park admission, we lined up with the rest of the crowd on the bridge to Marvel Super Hero Island waiting for the rope to drop. When the rope finally did drop, half of the crowd made their way to the Incredible Hulk Coaster and the other half ran for the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. We followed along with the second group and were seated in our ride vehicle in less than 5 minutes flat. This is truly the most incredible ride I have ever been on and is now tied with TOT (Tower having the sentimental edge) as my all time favorite ride. The simulated 40-story drop at the end of the ride managed to scare Joe so badly that he swore off all rides in this park for the rest of the day. Jimmie and I on the other hand, promised ourselves that we would do this ride at least one more time before leaving the park.
Now we couldn't help but notice that there was barely any line at all for the Hulk. This coaster certainly was one of the most intimidating looking coasters I had ever seen. Oh what the heck, I decided to give it a try. Wow! We were launched from 0 to 40-mph in less than 2 seconds. Now that was incredible. And guess what? There was still no line after our first ride, so we promptly rode it again. Unfortunately, two times in a row was a little more than my stomach could handle, so we decided to take a small break from thrill rides to let it settle.
We made our way to the Moon Crest Bakery at Port of Entry and had an absolutely delicious meal of smoked turkey and Brie on a croissant with iced mocha coffee to drink. I have to tell you folks, this place has the best park food I've ever tasted, and the prices are reasonable.
After our breakfast, we decided to go to the right of Port of Entry to Seuss Landing. This land really is a feast for the eyes and there truly is not a straight line in the place. We tried to find one and couldn't. Since there was no queue for Cat in the Hat, we jumped aboard one of the spinning couches and were transported into the popular children's book. Even Joe decided that this ride couldn't be too dangerous and came along. I liked this ride very much, probably because I'm so familiar with the story, and thought it was a bit better than the Winnie the Pooh ride at MK.
The next land we came to was The Lost Continent. When I walked over the bridge from Suess Landing and emerged on the other side, I was immediately and completely immersed in mythological fanasty. The theming was awesome, and I knew at once that I was hooked on this incredible park. We ventured into the walk-through attraction Poseidon's Fury, and thought that the 42-foot water vortex inside was just incredible. How did they do that? Another thing I really liked about this land was the unique shops located here. There was a place where you could have the mythical coin of your choice minted by dropping a huge weight on it. The shop was located in a tent and the clerks were dressed in desert garb. They stayed very in character addressing us as "Lord" and "Lady" as we selected a picture of Medusa to be pressed upon a silver medallion we were buying for our friend Johnny's birthday. There was another tent nearby that had fortunetellers--very cool.
I was about to test my stomach again as we approached the Dueling Dragons coaster. What you've heard about the queue is true, the castle is pretty incredible, and scary, with lots of bones and skulls lying about and an eerie, barely audible, moaning coming from within its walls. It's one of the few times I actually felt bad about the lack of lines as I raced through it to my ultimate fate on Ice Dragon. Could it be true? Yes! There was absolutely no line to sit in the front of the coaster in the dragon's mouth. I've heard people talk about the frightening near miss between the two dragon coasters, but to be perfectly honest I never even noticed it. And yes, I did have my eyes open--up until I almost slammed into the castle wall anyway. I liked this ride more than Hulk and think that it is my favorite coaster anywhere--even though I'm hoping that Rock'n' Roller Coaster at WDW will give it a run for it's money.
Remembering my bout with motion sickness after the second ride on the Hulk, we decided to move on and do the Fire Dragon at a later time. We were fortunate enough to come upon the Sinbad show just as it was getting ready to begin. I thought that this show was just okay, mainly because the acting and dialogue were so bad. The set was awesome however and the "human fireball" finale' was downright impressive. Jimmie, who has pledged his undying love to the Little Mermaid many times in the past, seemed all but ready to scrap her for the bronze beauty in the Sinbad show with the washboard stomach.
The next land we came upon was Jurassic Park. As a kid I was fascinated with dinosaurs and even asked Santa for those little plastic models for Christmas when other little girls my age were pleading for baby dolls, so I was really looking forward to the Jurassic Park River Adventure. Just as Jimmie and I entered the queue however (Joe is still refusing to ride anything), the ride shut down. Oh well, it was only 1:30 PM and there was still plenty of time for them to get it going again. We took a peek in the Jurassic Park Discovery Center instead, and didn't see much that interested us there. We did however witness the hatching of the baby raptors and thought that it was very cute for the kids. And speaking of children, we noticed that each land seemed to have a pretty nice playground area for small kids although most of the rides other than those at Suess Landings seemed to be aimed at older children. I'll let you know for certain when I take my 7-year-old granddaughter this December.
We all noticed that the heat seemed to be building throughout the day, and this was probably the hottest day we'd spent in Orlando yet. The obvious solution was to check out the water rides. Dudley Do-Right 's Ripsaw Falls in Toon Lagoon was a spectacle to behold. The drop appeared higher and steeper than "Splash," and the logs came careening down with such speed that by the time they hit the smaller double dip at the bottom they are actually airborne. Ironically, while Jimmie and I queued up for this ride to cool off, it was the longest line we encountered that day, and the heat in the queue was unbearable. Most of the queue was out in the direct sunlight, and the large fans they had placed around did little to help. They had a stand in the middle of the queue that sold soda and water, and by the time we reached it we had lost so much fluid we had no choice but to buy one at $2 a clip. I probably would not stand in that line again on an extremely hot day. Sadly, all of the theming was on the outside of the ride, and nonexistent on the inside. Even so, it was one thrilling ride. I don't think I've ever traveled so fast, or got that wet on a water flume. As our log came to a stop, I turned my head to look at Jimmie who was seated directly behind me just in time to see him spray a huge stream of water from of his mouth that he had taken in as he screamed plummeting down the mountain. That fountain of water spurting from between his lips remains one of the funniest memories I have of our entire trip.
Joe was beginning to lose his patience sitting out in the hot sun waiting for us as we ran from ride to ride, so we figured it was time to find some air conditioning and eat our dinner. We passed the Oak Tree Tavern back at The Lost Continent, and it was such an awesome sight that I just knew I had to have a peek inside the cavernous tree trunk. The restaurant was dark, spacey and cool. We ordered the rib special and received a huge plate of tasty barbecued ribs with fries, corn bread and carrot slaw for $9. Once again, I must tell you how good the food in this park really is. During dinner Joe decided that it was stupid for him to continue on with his "waiting
vigil," and announced that he would be catching the Mear's shuttle back to the resort. Sadly, I realized that I was losing the battle to "convert" him. Jimmie and I walked Joe to the entrance of the park, and I made a mental note that it was really beginning to look like rain.
No sooner did we get past the Port of Entry heading back into the park than the rain began to fall. Jimmie and I were still plenty wet from our soaking on Ripsaw Falls, so we weren't overly concerned. Unfortunately, all of the outdoor rides were closing down due to the lightening in the area. We figured that this would be a good time to ride Spider-Man again, but everyone else in the park had the same idea. I told Jimmie we should just go sit in the queue of the Jurrasic Park River Adventure until the lightening stopped. We waited in the sheltered queue for about an hour, durng which time it was abandoned by most of the other people in it. When the ride started back up again, we were able to get in the third or fourth boat. The rain persisted for the duration of the night, but Jimmie and I really didn't care because it felt so cooling, and it was chasing away most of the crowds. A ride operator told us that the rides would continue running in the rain as long as there was no lightening within a 5-mile radius. The Jurrasic Park River Adventure was a pretty good ride, but I wished that there had been a few more dinosaurs. What I did like about the ride was that we went up the incline to the drop long before they actually plunged us over it. There were lots of things going on, and eventually I forget that we went up that incline back there for a reason. At one point, a huge T-Rex appeared inches above our heads. I was so distracted by this monster that I didn't even notice the drop coming. Good one IOA!
The next ride we went on was Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges and this is now one of my favorite rides in the Orlando area. The ride was virtually a walk on, and you can not believe how fast this water was moving. The rafts were constantly swirling and bumping off the sides of the embankment. At one point the raft was lifted out of the water and pulled up an incline by a conveyer built. The ride had already been so much fun, we figured that we were just going to the unloading dock. But incredibly, the raft was propelled over what appeared to be about a 10-foot drop. Talk about getting soaked--I couldn't have gotten wetter if I had dived into the deep end of a swimming pool. And the ride didn't end there, we continued to be swirled down the river for what seemed like at least another full minute. This was one awesome ride!
Jimmie and I decided it was time to dry out a little, even though the light rain continued, and made our way to Spider-Man again. It was just as much fun the second time we rode it and no less impressive.
It was getting late and the rain started to come down even harder now. Jimmie refused to leave the park however until we rode the Fire Dragon. So we made a mad dash in the pouring rain to The Lost Continent and ran through the incredible castle queue. At the point where you are asked, "to choose your fate," we went to the right and boarded the Fire Dragon riding it as the rain pelted against our bodies. It was totally awesome, and Jimmie said he thought it was even better than Ice Dragon. I thought so too, but wasn't sure if it was because we had just experienced it and the memory of Ice Dragon was fading. Only one way to find out! We crossed over to Ice Dragon without going through the huge castle queue and rode it again. Now we both agreed, we liked Ice Dragon better.
It was approaching 10 PM and time for the park to close. Even the rain decided to call it a night and had tapered of considerably by the time we reached Suess Landing. Jimmie and I decided that we must ride that wild looking CaroSuessEl before leaving the park. There were so many whimsical animals to pick from it was hard to choose. Jimmie climbed atop a dog and I mounted a cow. The rain had completely ceased by the end of our ride, and the weather was warm and comfortable. As if on cue as we stood on the moving walkway exiting City Walk, we could hear and see IOA's fireworks show behind us. What a wonderful day--and one of the most fun I've ever had at a park. I'll be sure to visit IOA again in the near future.
I have only one final thought I would like to share about this park. IOA opened only a month before our visit, and already we were seeing signs of wear, tear and graffiti. Universal has a beautiful park here, and I only hope that they learn from Disney and keep it clean and in good repair.
Jimmie and I caught a City Cab back to the resort and found that it was about $10 cheaper than the cabs Bell Services at the resort had been calling for us. We were also given a coupon for $10 off our next cab ride for $20 and over. So if you must get a cab, call City Cab yourself and you'll save a bundle. It was 11:30 PM when we got back to our resort. I went straight to bed since we had to get up very early the next morning and pack for the cruise portion of our trip.
.......to be continued......
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